Time

You are here

MRPL Repays $1.4b in Oil Debt

The Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd., which owed $2.56 billion to Iran since 2013 over import of crude oil, has so far paid $1.4 billion of its debt, The Hindu reported. H. Kumar, the chief executive of MRPL, said the payment was possible following the lifting of sanctions against Iran six months ago. "As banking channels opened up, payment was possible," the official said. Under the sanctions, MRPL paid 45% of the dues in Indian currency. While some payments were made through Union Bank of India, now they are also being made through the SBI and Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG. India is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian crude and built up a payment backlog of around $6.5 billion. They cleared around $770 million in euros through Halkbank to the National Iranian Oil Company in May. Iran was India's second-largest oil supplier by 2009, but exports dramatically fell after the US and the EU imposed tougher sanctions against Tehran in 2012.